Key findings from the Jan. 6 committee’s final report

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol released its full, final report late Thursday night.

Below are some key takeaways.

1. “Potus im sure is loving this”: Mid-riot text adds to suggestions of Trump’s approval

The committee has focused extensively on then-President Donald Trump’s inaction as the riot was taking place. But it has occasionally suggested that he might have approved of what was happening or at least seen some political upside in it.

And the final report contains more grist for that mill: One of the most striking new revelations is a text message from a Trump aide, Robert Gabriel. At 2:49 p.m., as the Capitol was under siege, Gabriel texted, “Potus im sure is loving this.”

Shortly after Jan. 6, 2021, and amid Trump’s impeachment, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) relayed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had said Trump told him during the riot, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

[House Jan. 6 panel’s final report: Trump ‘lit that fire’ of Capitol insurrection]

White House aide Sarah Matthews has said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told her that Trump resisted calling on the rioters to be “peaceful” in a tweet. (In texts from the time and in later testimony to the committee, Trump aide Hope Hicks also said that, before Jan. 6, both she and White House lawyer Eric Herschmann called for Trump to preemptively urge peacefulness, but that Trump “refused.”)

White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has also testified that, amid a frantic effort to get Trump to act, she overheard chief of staff Mark Meadows telling White House counsel Pat Cipollone, “He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat.”

[Alaska Sen. Sullivan says Giuliani tried to call him twice before election certification vote, left ‘incoherent’ messages he says were intended for another senator]

The committee pressed Cipollone on whether Trump actually wanted people to leave the Capitol. Cipollone had said he couldn’t think of anyone on staff who didn’t want the rioters to leave. But when asked whether Trump shared in that opinion, Cipollone struggled with the question and ultimately punted, saying he couldn’t “reveal communications” with Trump, citing executive privilege.

2. New details on the “fake elector” plot

One of the committee’s criminal referrals homes in on the effort to appoint alternate Trump electors (also known as “fake electors”) in key states. And a key question has been: What was the intent behind their appointment?

[Jan. 6 panel aimed to write history. Will it upend Trump’s political future?]

The Trump campaign pitched these electors as just a contingency - i.e., they needed to be in place by the Dec. 14 deadline, just in case a given state changed course and declared Trump the winner of their electoral votes. But there has been evidence that some of the architects of the plot planned to deploy the electors regardless, in a much more desperate and forceful ploy to overturn legitimate election results.

Georgia electors facing legal scrutiny say they had no idea there would be an attempt to misuse them. But emails revealed this summer by the New York Times showed some participants suggesting the fake electors could tempt then-Vice President Mike Pence to choose them instead of the legitimate electors when he presided over the count on Jan. 6.

Some of the fake electors were apparently concerned about the strategy, or even saw something unsavory ahead. Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt texted his party’s executive director in late November and said, “I hope they are not planning on asking us to do anything like try and say we are only the proper electors.” He added on Dec. 12 after receiving a message about Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani: “These guys are up to no good and its gonna fail miserably.” Hitt signed on as a Trump elector anyway.

Other electors clearly worried about legal liability, insisting that the documents listing them specify that they were only legitimate if their states’ election results were overturned. But most documents made no such distinction.

The committee also detailed new evidence linking Giuliani, Trump and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to the early fake-elector effort. Trump campaign lawyer Joshua Findlay testified that “it was my understanding that the President made” the decision to have someone look into the feasibility of appointing alternative electors around Dec. 7 or 8.

3. Some notable recommendations - including on 14th Amendment

On Monday, the committee took the historic step of referring Trump and others to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. But the report features some other recommendations, including one that had been floated after Jan. 6: possibly disqualifying Trump and others from holding office.

The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says that anyone who has “engaged in an insurrection” or given “aid or comfort to the enemies” of the United States can be barred from holding office. (This law has been invoked in unsuccessful efforts to bar some GOP lawmakers like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from office; it has been a century since someone has been disqualified under the 14th Amendment.)

Trump’s second impeachment featured a historic number of members of the president’s own party voting in favor. And some Democrats and watchdogs continue to argue for Trump to be barred from office. But with Republicans taking over the House in early January - and even Democrats generally having shown little appetite for this step before - it appears unlikely Congress will take up this proposal.

The report also advises that congressional committees look into media and social media companies whose policies have “have had the effect of radicalizing their consumers, including by provoking people to attack their own country.” And it recommends possible safeguards against a president misusing the Insurrection Act, which some Trump allies floated.